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Trading bans have a perilous downside for wildlife

You could say they are being killed with kindness. Wildlife trading bans set up to protect endangered species may in fact put them in greater peril.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) was introduced in 1975 to protect animals at risk of extinction. Conservationists have noticed, however, that CITES trade bans have a nasty side effect. In the period between a ban’s proposal and its legal enactment, trade in a given species spikes dramatically, says Philippe Rivalan at Paris-Sud University in France.

To calculate the significance of the effect, Rivalan and colleagues analysed trading data held by …